There is a reason customers have been known to travel more than 100 miles to shop at Nell Hill's in Atchison, Kan.

That's because owner Mary Carol Garrity has got style. It's a unique combination of fancy and casual, sophisticated and whimsical - a style that has been featured on "Today," "The Early Show" and in The Wall Street Journal, to name a few.

And every year she comes up with new ideas on how to put it all together for displaying at her store in Atchsion, at Garrity's Encore (a sister store also in Atchison) and at her latest addition, the new Nell Hill's at Briarcliff Village in Kansas City. Her designscapes are also featured in several books: "Nell Hill's Feather Your Nest," "Nell Hill's Stylish Weddings," "Nell Hill's Entertaining in Style," "Nell Hill's Christmas at Home," and "Nell Hill's Style at Home." And this year, just in time for the Christmas season, she has released yet another: "Nell Hill's O' Christmas Tree."

The book features photos of homes in this area decorated for the holidays, including Ann and Guy Humphreys' ranch-style home in St. Joseph. Resources for finding some of the accessories in the book are listed in the back, and throughout the book, Ms. Garrity gives design tips and commentary to inspire us to come up with our own holiday style.

We caught up with Ms. Garrity recently to talk about the book, along with ideas for the season, and we share a few of her thoughts with you here:

Q: Would you say there is a more natural trend in the holiday decorating than in your last Christmas book?

A: Yes. It's like fashion, and things change. The Christmas book we had before is about seven years old. It had more elaborate, kind of over-the-top decorations. This is more understated.

Q: One of the home interiors you feature is Ann and Guy Humphrey's house in St. Joseph. Are these actual photos of their home during Christmas?

A: This is exactly how Ann decorated last Christmas. Ann and Guy have such a wonderful house to begin with. I love her sense of style and just admire everything she does. Her whole palate in the home is black and white. About a year or two ago, she added apple greens to the mix. Then recently she added a Tiffany blue. It's really fun to watch her decorate.

Q: How have you been able to arrange getting all these photos of personal homes during the Christmas season?

A: I beg my friends (laughs). Because it is very disruptive when we go into someone's house. We're there for a couple of days shooting, and there is camera equipment all over the place. Guy and Ann have let us do this a couple of times.

Q: For somebody just getting started with their holiday decorating, how do you recommend they begin?

A: Invest in really great greens, because if you have greens and a little bit of ribbon, you can go to town.

Q: Should they be fresh?

A: There's nothing like beautiful fresh greens, that's the ultimate. But fresh greens are expensive, and with the furnace going they dry out. My husband always thought I would set the house on fire. And artificial greens have improved so much over the past few years. If you pulled out greenery you bought 10 years ago and compared it to last year, there's a huge difference.

Q: When you are decorating your own home, how do you do it? Do you clear out everything first to make room for the decorations?

A: I like to add. You let Christmas decorate around what you have instead of letting it take over your room. You can't afford to change all of your fabrics and everything. Money and time is too short. You just need to make it easy, fast and fun.

"Nell Hill's O Christmas Tree" is published by Andrews McMeel Publishing with a suggested retail price of $29.99. You can find it at her stores and on andrewsmcmeel.com or amazon.com.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson can be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com